With wall covering, it's starting to look like a room

Over the past week I have slowly been covering the walls with sheetrock.  I had originally planned to do the outside stucco work before tackling the drywall, but I am waiting for a block-and-tackle I that purchased on eBay to arrive – I need that pulley unit to hoist the heavy buckets of stucco mix onto the high scaffold.

So . . .  itching to keep going on the project, I put on my drywall hat, picked up the same tools that I used 30 years ago in Austin.

Above and below: With the application of drywall over the studs, the new upstairs Tea Room takes shape above the dining room.  A 48" french door will go into the opening.

The red chalk lines on the drywall indicate where the studs are. I used 1 5/8" coarse-thread drywall screws to attach the 1/2" sheetrock.

Above and below: While covering the wall that adjoins the office, I realized how much I enjoy this part of the project. The drywall effects a quick, dramatic transformation into a usable room.

Above and below:  The left closet.

The shiny metal strip at left is called "round corner bead." You nail it over outside corners and plaster over it with drywall compound for a soft, round-corner effect.

Using odd scraps of 5/8" drywall, I patched up the channels in the garage ceiling that I had created to run wiring to the new room. The yellow strips are drywall mesh tape.

The wires ran through this "chase." The Cowboys/Longhorns pennants remained undisturbed through the project.

Applying the "mud."   Once the joints are taped with the yellow nylon mesh, the plastering can begin. It generally takes three coats, using successively wider blades, to effect a smooth finish. I have blades that are 6", 8", and 12" –  the same tools that I used 30 years ago when building my house in Austin.

The key to a smooth wall is to use plenty of drywall compound and feather it out widely with each successive coat –  to blend it with the existing ceiling.  I sometimes dip the blade in water to get a really smooth glaze.  With patience, most sanding can be avoided. 

2nd inspection passed

Monday, July 18:

I just passed my second building inspection:   rough framing, electrical, mechanical, and stucco lath.

It's off to the races now to finish up this project.  The next two steps will be drywall and stucco.  The inspector wants to view all of the drywall attached to the interior walls before I tape/float/finish it.  He wants to make sure that I have used enough screws.

I finished installing the stucco lath yesterday (Sunday). 

I will start on the stucco later this week.  First, I need to devise some sort of pulley/rope system so that I can mix the stucco on the ground then hoist it up onto this scaffold for troweling into the wall. 

The stucco will consists of three coats:  scratch / fill / finish.

Once the stucco is done, I will tear down this scaffold and paint the wall.  Then the homeowners association will sign off on my project as finished (they only care about the exterior.)

BELOW:  It was painstaking work to tie the wire into the existing wire behind the finished walls.  Kind of like sewing, but with needle-nose pliers.

The real purpose of duct tape

I took a break from the project for a couple of weeks surrounding the July 4 holiday, but the midsummer heat provided me fresh incentive to get to the next inspection – then close up the ceiling so that we can use our attic fan and air conditioning.

To that end, I finished all the rough wiring over the weekend and installed the HVAC duct for the new room.

A long, silvery 6" flexible air duct, which consists of a circular inner duct made of a mylar-type material supported by coiled spring wire.  The inner duct is wrapped with fiberglass insulation and outer foil. I stretched the duct out on the floor and assembled as much of it as possible prior to pulling it into the attic, which is hot, dirty, cramped, and full of fiberglass insulation – just miserable to work in. (I had to buy 25 feet of duct in a box, but only used 12 feet.  If anybody wants the other 13 feet, let me know!)

For the air conditioning/heating outlet, I cut this 6" x 10" opening through the bedroom ceiling. (Below: The metal box will sit atop the ceiling opening.)

Using screws and duct tape, I attached one sheet-metal elbow to the rectangular box to help shape a gentle bend in the duct. (A tight bend or crimp might impede air flow.)  Then I attached the inner tube to the metal using duct tape, and secured the outer insulation with tape and large cable-tie straps.

Rather than drag the duct through the attic opening down the hallway, I pushed it up through this ceiling hole above the new closet, which is almost directly below the attic furnace.

In addition to pulling the duct through this opening, I also pushed my tools through this hatch, avoiding the struggle of carrying them the length of the attic while crab-walking on the joists. And although I couldn't easily crawl upward through this opening, I could jump down through it – much easier than crab-walking back to the traditional attic hatch.  Especially when you have to go up and down about 15 times, which is what it took me to complete this HVAC installation.  Every time I came down through this opening – hot, dirty, miserable, and swearing – Anne would hear the commotion and ask me if all was okay.   And, occasionally she would offer me a cup of tea.

This is the air outlet, now installed atop the ceiling drywall. (It is the unit I that I assembled on the floor, shown in the first few photos of this post.) I used construction adhesive to glue it to the top of the drywall and then put these temporary screws through the ceiling to pull it tight against the drywall.  Once the room is finished and painted, I will attach the air-register grille.

The new, foil air duct inside the attic. After I attached the outlet-box to the ceiling hole, I packed fiberglass insulation around it.

This is the furnace plenum chamber, a huge metal box that collects all the hot/cold air coming out of the unit and distributes it via flexible ducts. Rather than disturbing any of the existing ducts, which are 20 years old and somewhat brittle, I decided to cut a hole through this metal wall and install a new opening.  I started by drawing a 6" circle (above).

I cut the hole using a jig saw with metal-cutting blade. First, I drilled a 1/4" hole so that I could push the jig saw blade through, then I cut the circle. I had to poke my arm through this hole and vacuum up all the metal "sawdust" lest it blow through the house next time I turn the AC on.

This is the duct connection to the plenum chamber. It has metal tabs that bend outward to hold it in place from the inside.  For a tighter seal, I also used sheet metal screws around the flange.

Next, I attached an elbow to help avoid any radical turns in the duct that could impede air flow.

Finally, I attached the new duct (right), and re-wrapped the plenum chamber with fiberglass insulation.


Below: Final pre-inspection work

The large, gray circuit breaker at the bottom of the panel is an "arc fault circuit interrupter," the latest innovation in home-fire prevention required by the national electrical code. It takes a double-slot on the panel.  To install this, I turned off all power, removed the panel-facing, and fished a No. 12 romex cable down though the wall from inside the garage. The photos below show that cable, which provides power to the new Tea Room.

The yellow cable to the right carries power from the AFCI breaker up to a new outlet in the office, then back down through the white cable to the Tea Room.

The yellow cable is routed through the garage "chase" and down to the electrical panel. I managed to do all of this without disturbing the Dallas Cowboys pennant on the wall.

Office junction:  The upper box is the terminus for CAT-5 and CAT-6 ethernet cables. The lower box serves 4 functions:  (1) brings power along the new AFCI circuit from the main panel; (2) sends that power onward to the Tea Room; (3) provides a new office outlet for my computer equipment; (4) sends the power to a new office outlet for ironing (below).

This new outlet is for ironing and vacuum-cleaning.  I have politely requested that there be no ironing board placed in the posh new Tea Room.  The compromise was to install a more-convenient outlet in the office for the iron.

Stucco mesh:  I intend to finish nailing up this netting by Friday, then request my second building inspection on Monday. The reinforcing mesh is attached with special "furring" nails that push the wire slightly away from the wall so that the stucco will flow behind it and totally encase it.